


Love Isn't Just A Feeling

by Black_Rabbit13



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-18 16:35:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21930457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Black_Rabbit13/pseuds/Black_Rabbit13
Relationships: Prompto Argentum/Noctis Lucis Caelum
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11
Collections: FFXV Holiday Gift Exchange 2019





	Love Isn't Just A Feeling

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pannon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pannon/gifts).



_At first I was afraid to meet you, then I was afraid to kiss you, then I was afraid to love you, now I’m afraid to lose you. - Rene Yasenek_

Prompto knew who Noctis was before he had helped the Oracle’s dog and received her letter asking that he befriend the young Prince.

After King Regis ended the war and, with the assistance of Queen Sylva Via Fleuret, cleared the Star scourge from all of Eos, the Royal families were very beloved by all the countries and never long out of the media’s eyes. The Oracle was reported visiting anyone in need of her healing, her daughter Lunafreya often in her company. While Ravus remained to keep their home safe in his Mother’s absence, his leadership a solid presence the people relied on to keep the country of Tenebrae running. 

King Regis and the Council were still working to right the wrongs the Chancellor left behind after his defeat, trying to make Lucis a home to all refugees who had made their way behind the wall after their homelands fell. The King often on television to inform the people of current progress and assuring the people of the peace he was working to bring them. Prince Noctis was not often shown, but if the Royal family visited any of the charities or held an event, then he would be seen either by his father’s side or helping to serve the people.

If he was asked, Prompto would admit that Noctis’s title did intimidate him a fair bit, but that wasn’t the real reason why Prompto was avoiding talking with him. 

Soulmates had been a gift given to the humans long ago when the Astrals first created Eos, a gift for the mortals who worshipped them. People were given numbers on their arm, a set determination of steps until soulmates would meet one another. Scientists had made various studies into how it worked; especially as new technology came into the world. It was eventually it was found that even if people spoke over the internet or the telephone until they met in person and exchanged at least a single word, a person’s counter wouldn’t go down. Once soulmates did meet, their counters would change into red bands around their wrists, inscribed with a word or phrase that would mean something to both of them. 

So when Prompto was making his way to introduce himself to the Prince for the first time, he fiddled with his sweatband to make sure it was hiding his barcode, he saw the steps remaining on his counter. Instead of the three thousand sixty hundred and fifty-three steps he had on his arm this morning, he was down to a mere twenty steps left until he met his soulmate. With Prince Noctis being the only one left in the small area behind the elementary school, it didn’t take him long to put the pieces together. 

‘ _I... I can’t do this_ ’ Prompto thought, making sure to duck around the corner again before he was noticed ‘ _it was one thing for me to just go over there and try to say something! Not for him to find out we’re **soulmates**!’_

‘ _I’m not someone who could be the soulmate of a Prince’_

He was so lost in his thoughts; he didn’t notice anything until he felt the tap on his shoulder.

Yelping in fright, Prompto jumped away from the wall he had been leaning against and turned to face whatever had touched him.

Or who as the case turned out as Prince Noctis stared at him.

“Pr-Prince Noctis!” Prompto exclaimed, his heart beating fast for an entirely different reason then a second ago “Wha-I mean, Hello! “

“What are you doing?” asked Noctis “You’ve just been hiding over here for the last few minutes”

“Well, you see” Prompto tried to explain “I just wanted to…”

The bell's ring echoed throughout the school grounds, singling the end of lunch and classes to be restarting in the next five minutes.

“Ah…I’ve got to go. See ya!” Noctis said in passing as he jogged past the blonde.

Prompto stood there and watched the Prince go back to the classroom, already knowing if he looked at his arm now his counter would be gone, replaced by a solid red band around his wrist.

“Maybe I’ll get lucky and he won’t notice” Prompto muttered to himself before he began to walk back to class as well.

He did look down at his wrist later that night, finally having enough courage to see the words that would tie him to soulmate forever. Gently running his finger over them, he fell asleep hoping this would all work out. 

Somehow Prompto’s luck manages to hold out and no one finds out that he’s the Prince’s Soulmate. 

Prompto expected for there to be a countrywide search once Prince Noctis discovered his mark, doubting he would think Prompto himself was his match and instead one of the millions of other people he interacted with daily. He made sure to avoid Noctis when he noticed that the Prince had two extra guards coming to pick him up a few days after their meeting, not ready to deal with everything that would happen when it came out Prompto was Noctis’s soulmate.

Instead, he began to focus on running and getting a better diet then fast food burgers and fries. The space beside his bedroom mirror filled up with progress photos, the visible improvement encouraging him to continue to make progress on his self-imposed mission to become someone worthy of being someone’s soulmate. 

Before Prompto knew it, he was waking up on to his first day of High School and the beginning to the rest of his life.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Noctis didn’t notice his counter had stopped until Gladio made a comment about it. 

They had been sparring with wooden swords again, Gladio nagging him about having to block _then_ parry when the older boy managed to knock his sword out of his hand. The force of the blow made him ache all the way down his arm, hissing slightly when he tried to move his hand. 

“That’s why I keep telling you to fix your grip, Brat” Gladio said, before sighing and reaching out to look at the Prince’s wrist, pausing when he noticed the red band around his wrist. At first, a flare of concern beat through him, afraid he _had_ injured the kid, but it was when he took a second look that he recognized what he was seeing.

A Soulmark.

Specifically, a Soulmark that hadn’t been there four days ago when he lasted trained with the Princess.

“Noct, when did you get this?” asked Gladio, gesturing to the mark

“I don’t know,” Noctis said, rubbing at his wrist once Gladio released it “I only saw it when I went to get ready for bed the other night” 

“Have you told Iggy or your Dad about this yet?” asked Gladio, taking the resulting silence the Prince offered as his answer. “Okay. Go get cleaned up and then we’re going to go see Ignis”

Once Ignis was informed of the mark, he asked Noctis various questions-Do you know when you got this? Do you remember who you spoke with that day? Did anything stand out as different than usual? - before going off to speak to with Cor, while Noctis went to speak to his Dad.

Regis was a lot calmer about the situation, asking Noctis similar questions to what Ignis asked but tempering off with some mild teasing to his son. As Noctis blushed and huffed at his Dad over the jokes, he felt the tension over the matter lift. If his Dad, the King, wasn’t worried about who Noctis’s soulmate might be, then what did he need to fear?

The rest of the evening was spent listing to Regis tell stories about his own Soulmark and the time he spent courting Noctis’s Mother; A walk in the gardens, a day at Galdin Quay, flowers picked to leave her a message for the days they had to be apart, all the antics they had gotten into together. It made Noctis feel both closer to his parents and excited at what might happen with his soulmate. 

Ignis came by later to escort him back to his room, after going over the plans for the next few days to see if they could pinpoint who Noctis’s soulmate was. It wasn’t until he was in bed that he thought to even really look at his mark, delicately tracing the words with his fingers with a soft smile. He couldn’t wait to have his own adventures with his soulmate. 

His smile turned into a frown as he tried to retrace his steps from the last few days. 

He was almost positive that it had to be someone from school, as he hadn’t joined any meetings with his Dad for a while as the council had been stuck debating what to do with some of the refugees who had recently come into Lucis. Noctis had had nearly seven thousand steps earlier in the week, barely noticing that it had gone down to the hundreds when his classmates once again swarmed him during lunch. He had gone out behind the school to find a quiet spot to just get away from it all. Noctis had just been getting to head back to the classroom early when he saw…

‘ _That blonde kid_?!!!’ Noctis thought, sitting straight up in shocked realization ‘ _It has to be him!’_

It was the only explanation he could think of that matched all the pieces he had together. 

As he fell back down on his pillows, Noctis tried to get his thoughts together.

On the one hand, he knew he should tell Iggy who he thought it might as soon as he saw him tomorrow morning. The council would want his soulmate to be under protective guard like Noctis to prevent any incidents. There was always a worry that someone would try to use the soulmate of the Royal Family as a bargaining tool, even now after the war ended.

On the other, Noctis wasn’t sure that would be the right thing to do. The boy he saw yesterday didn’t look like he liked any attention, and attention is all he'd have if it came out he was Noctis’s soulmate. Along with attending any functions and charities once they were older and could publicly interact as soulmates. Noctis couldn’t ask anyone, least of all his soulmate, to make that kind of sacrifice for him.

The next two weeks had him dealing with Ignis, along with Gladio and Nyx, doing subtle checks on all his classmates to see if any of them had any new mark not already reported. Noctis had decided he wouldn’t tell anyone just yet who he thought his soulmate might be, partly wanting to see if he could find any more proof that he was right on who it might be and partly to see if he, “Prompto” Noctis quietly reminded himself once he found out the blonde’s name, might come forward on his own.

It wouldn’t be until several years later that his waiting came to an end.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

“…And so that’s how your Uncle Prom and I met” said Noctis as he carefully balanced the little girl on his knee.

Aster Amicitia, oldest daughter of Gladio and Ignis, stared up at her Uncle Noctis with star stuck eyes.

“Is that really what happened Uncle Noct?” the girl asked “I thought you and Uncle Prom didn’t meets until big kid school?"

Chuckling, Noctis shook his head.

"That's where Uncle Prom finally introduced himself" answered Noctis "It was also the start of a very drawn out courtship"

"Not that your Uncle was any help himself" added Prompto as he walked into the Sun room Noctis had taken shelter in to escape the meetings with his council. "Honestly, I'm surprised Nyx and Gladio didn't just lock us in one of the garden sheds after third year"

"Only because Ignis talked them out of it since it was still in the middle of Midwinter Solstice and we were both down with the flu" said Noctis, giving his husband a kiss when he sat down beside him.

Humming, Prompto drew back and smiled at Noctis.

_His Soulmate. His King. His Husband. His Everything_

_"_ I know it took a while, and we had a lot of things that almost seemed to make this impossible. But I can't think of anything I'd change, because it led us all the way to here" Prompto said as he leaned his head onto Noctis Shoulder. Tickling Aster as she crawled over Noctis to sit on his lap.

It had never been easy for them.

The lies they told and kept from not just each other , but those around them. The fights that sometimes escalated into shouting matches and days of not speaking to each other. Insecurities keeping a home in their minds, making it so hard to keep thinking everything would be fine, for why would the Astrals bless them with a person who would only _hurt_?

But the pain they felt, was not greater than the love they found

The fun and laughter they had together during their high school days. Arcade dates and sharing fries they tried to keep Ignis from finding out about, least he add more vegetables to the lunches he made. When the nights were cold or raining, nothing warmed them better than being buried together under the blanket and sharing quiet words. Epic battles of who could make the other blush in the middle of their day from the bouquet of flowers they would secretly leave around to be found at the best - "Worst" Ignis would insist, even as the Adviser makes plans to have his King find Prompto's last bundle after his meeting tomorrow- times.

Noctis grabbed Prompto's wrist, raising it to his mouth to kiss the words that echoed on his own mark. 

Linking their fingers together and laying his head on top of Prompto's, Noctis mummered the words that mattered just as equal as the "I love yous"; they made sure to say each morning dawn and just before sleep claimed them each night.

"Ever at your side, my Soulmate"

_“Ye are Blood of my Blood, and Bone of my Bone,_

_I give ye my Body, that we Two might be One._

_I give ye my Spirit, ’til our Life shall be Done.”_

_― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander_


End file.
